Work Text:
A looming stack of papers slam onto Momo’s desk. She groans and checks the time, 8:37 PM. With the amount of paperworks she has, she’d likely be here till early morning. No matter how long this might take, she’d rather get the paperwork done now than later. Funny how she thought her days of all nighters would be over, but alas.
Momo pulls the sheet from the top of the stack, and fills each box with her pen without much thought. She pulls the second, the paper making a quiet hiss as it slides off the stack, and she fills it in. She pulls out the third, and fills it in. Momo falls into the repetitive rhythm of the pen strokes and paper whirring.
She takes a sip of her tea and grimances, it’s cold. She swears she just boiled the water minutes ago… She glimpses at the clock in her office, 11:06 PM. Crap , she isn’t even close to what she thought she’d have done by now. Despite her efforts, barely a third of the mountain of papers had been shaved off. She stands up and stretches, preparing herself for a kind of battle they didn’t exactly cover in U.A. Plopping herself onto her chair, she slides another sheet of paper off the stack. Yet as her pen glides on the lines of the paper, her eyelids have a growing weight placed onto them. Her grip of the pen gradually loosens, and the ink trails off leaving her signature half-signed.
Momo jumps in her seat as her phone begins to buzz. Her actions and thoughts feel slowed and groggy. Did she fall asleep? She hopes not for long.
She picks up her phone to see who’s calling her. The contact name reads: Midoriya-kun. What could he possibly want this late? Momo wonders. Nonetheless she accepts the call and greets him with a warm hello.
“Hi Yaomomo! Sorry to bother you. I know you’re probably sleeping this hour, but can I ask you a favour?”
Momo chuckled at his accurate assumption, “Of course! I was actually filling out paperwork, so you aren’t bothering me. What do you need?”
“So uh, Kaminari came over to me and Todoroki-kun’s apartment. Todoroki was off on patrol and Kaminari wanted to show me his new and improved cooking skills.”
Momo snorts, “I have a feeling where this might be going…”
“Yeah, it’s going exactly where you think it is,” Midoriya continues, “He ended up burning the pan and somehow the chicken was, I kid you not Yaomomo, still raw.”
There is a moment of stunned silence on Momo’s end, “He what.”
“Yeah-haha, but he- he-,” Midoriya can’t finish his sentence without wheezing, “He also seasoned it so much that you could not tell that it was raw-” He bursts out into a fit of laughter, leaving his sentence hanging
“Oh..my,” she worryingly chuckles along with him.
“You couldn’t tell it was raw until you bit into it, and even then there was so much damn oregano you couldn’t-,” Midoriya lets out an incomprehensive noise, “you couldn’t be too sure.”
Momo lets out a giggle.
“I didn’t want to tell Kaminari the food was… bad, so I just said I wasn’t too hungry and that I’d eat it later. I shoved that thing to the back of the fridge and completely forgot about it. Until a few minutes ago.”
Now Momo is completely lost. She responds with a skeptical, “Uh-huh…”
“Okay, I’ll get to the point here. I have a hunch that Todoroki currently has food poisoning”
Don’t tell me he ate the chicken…
“How would you know that from a hunch?”
“Because he well texted me quote ‘Midoriya what the fuck was in that chicken,’ So uh...yeah.”
He ate the chicken.
Momo can’t even think of a response.
Midoriya continues, “I’m on patrol right now, and I won’t be back till tomorrow. Your office is close to our apartment, and Todoroki probably gave you an extra pair of keys. So I was wondering if you could check up on him. Please?”
Momo looks up at the stack of papers and furrows her eyebrows. Well, I guess these papers will have to be done another day.
“Of course Midoriya-kun. I’ll be on my way.”
The door to Todoroki and Midoriya’s shared apartment clicks open, and she welcomes herself in. The soft pleasant smell of linen and comfortable atmosphere is no stranger to Momo. She’s spent many hours worth of late nights and dinners along with her former classmates here. She smiles at the memories.
“Todoroki-kun?” She calls out into the apartment, “It’s me Yaomomo. Midoriya-kun called, and I came to check on you. Where are you?”
A muffled mumble comes from a pile of blankets. She stifles a laugh as she slips off her shoes and heads toward the talking pile of blankets on the couch. There seems to be at least 5 blankets heaped on the cushions on the couch. Her eyes scan the blankets, in search of any signs of a certain red and white haired someone.
A messy tuft of hair and a pair of dual colored eyes poke out from the blankets.
Ah. There he is.
He certainly looks comfortable.
Though, she can't help but chuckle at the sight. Right in front of her is a top pro-hero who risks his life on a regular basis, yet here he is snuggled up in soft blankets fighting the villain that is Kaminari’s cooking. Who knew oregano-chicken of all things would be powerful enough to have Todoroki Shouto bed-ridden? Though probably anything Kaminari cooks will result in something like this.
Momo doesn’t think she’s ever seen Todoroki sick, actually she didn’t think Todoroki could ever get sick.
Todoroki gives Momo a defeated look.
“Remind me to kill Kaminari the next time I see him.”
She giggles, “I think his own cooking might get to that before you.”
“It better,” he slumps further into the couch.
She kneels down beside the couch and stares at him with a face full of concern. Todoroki turns his head to look back at her. She rests her chin on the cushion of the couch. His eyes wander across her face, before locking onto her eyes.
Momo gently lifts the messy strands of hair on his forehead and pushes it back, pressing the palm of her other hand onto his forehead. Todoroki closes his eyes, softly leaning into her touch.
Momo’s face scrunches in concern at the absurd temperature. A mix of extreme hot and cold, split right in half. “Is it normally like this when you get sick?”
His voice is husk and scratchy as he speaks, “I think. I don’t get sick often.”
Her lips purse tightly into a fine line seeing Todoroki like this. It makes her uneasy.
She wants to help the best she can.
“Would you like me to brew you some tea? And if you have an appetite I can make you some soba,” she offers.
His eyes light up at the word ‘soba.’
“Yeah. I’d like tha-,” a sneeze interrupts Todoroki’s reply.
“Bless you,” she grins, “That was cute.”
“Wh-,” he stutters, fumbling over his words. “Don't you think you’re enjoying this too much?” he mumbles, and his face flushes either from his sickness, being flustered, or both. Momo smiles. It's certainly interesting to see a red-faced Todoroki.
“You rest while I go whip up the tea and soba, alright?”
“Okay.”
The apartment is silent besides the faint snores of Todoroki in the other room, the crackling bubble of boiling water, and the various clanks of the utensils Momo is using to cook. She enjoyed this kind of silence where the background noise is there to keep you company. Dead silence is far too jarring for Momo, it fills her with an anxious feeling. In a way dead silence is louder than anything else.
The electric kettle clicks as it comes to a boiling point.
Momo grabs two mugs from the cupboard. One is a mug that Todoroki said he likes. The mug is a deep maroon color, with a glossy glaze finish that reflects her tinted image.
She wonders why Todroki likes that peculiar mug.
She pours the boiling water into both mugs, and watches it swish around before it settles in the cup. She places the tea bags into each mug, the steam hitting her face as she adds the perfect amount of sugar and cream.
Nothing else makes Momo feel better than a cup of tea.
Well, almost nothing else.
He sleeps peacefully on the couch, the hushed sounds of his steady breathing fill the room. Momo feels bad that she has to wake him up, but he has to drink something and she didn't want the freshly steeped tea to go to waste.
She crouches down until her face is only inches away from his. His cheek is squished against the couch and it looks too perfect to not poke.
One poke wouldn’t hurt right?
She pokes his cheek.
As a result, his eyes flutter open. Momo can’t suppress the wide grin that stretches across her face. Todoroki’s lips form a ‘o’ shape at Momo’s antics, but not long after he returns the grin.
“I made tea, and the soba’s almost ready,” Momo says softly.
Todoroki simply nods and rubs his eyes. He pushes the pile of blankets to the side and sleepily sits up.
His hair is unkempt and his bangs stick to his forehead. He looks like he’s been overheating.
He runs hand through his hair to push it back only for it to fall back into place. Momo grabs the hair elastic on her wrist that keeps her usual ponytail up during work, and runs her hand through his hair, parting the top half and ties it up with her elastic.
Strands of hair sprout out of the ponytail and some are barely long enough to reach the tie. His hairstyle hasn’t changed much since highschool, though at the ends of his fringe are a bit overgrown. He looks up at her when she finishes.
She backs up to admire his hairstyle, “Your hair looks nice like this.”
“Does it?” he questions, patting the bud of hair that comes out the hair tie.
Momo hums in response, taking a sip of tea. She glances up from her tea to find Todoroki watching her intently.
“What?” Momo raises an eyebrow.
“Your hair looks nice like that,” he says nonchalantly.
Now it’s Momo’s turn to blush.
“Wha-” she stammers.
Crap
Crap
Crap
What does she even say to that?
“Y-you know what I think the soba’s ready,” she laughs nervously as she stands up to go to the kitchen. Todoroki chuckles at her embarrassment.
Momo comes back into the living room with two bowls full of soba in hand and she places them down onto the table. Todoroki doesn’t hesitate to dig into the bowl of soba. Momo, on the other hand, takes her time eating the meal. As they eat together, between bites comfortable conversations follow.
“Are you gonna stay over?” he asks while glancing at the clock, “It’s two in the morning.”
“I’m not sure,” she pauses to take a bite of the noodles, “I guess it depends how you’re feeling. If you aren’t feeling too well I’ll stay but if you can manage by yourself I’ll head ba-”
“Could you stay? I could manage on my own but-” he murmurs, “I just like having you around.”
She smiles, “Alright then. I’ll stay.”
“Okay.”
Momo finishes her bowl of soba that Todoroki has finished many minutes before her. She glances up from her food to find Todoroki staring at her. How long has he been doing this?
“Caught you,” she says amused.
“Mhmm,” he mumbles in response, folding his arms on the table and placing his head on top, all without his eyes leaving hers.
She sighs. Todoroki really was something.
Momo shifts her sitting position, struggling to find a spot where her clothes don’t itch at her skin. She’s been wearing them since work started, and they aren’t exactly the most comfortable. Maybe she could just stick it out the night? She was already losing sleep at this point. A few less hours wouldn’t hurt right?
“You can borrow mine,” Todoroki brings up, reading her mind.
“What?”
“I have a shirt and a pair of sweats in the bottom drawer of my room.”
“Are you sure?” Momo pauses, the thought of wearing Todoroki’s clothes makes her feel some sort of way, “You don’t have to”
“I’d rather you sleep in something more comfortable than your work clothes”
“It’s okay! I can manage-”
Todoroki looks at her, and the face he makes, god the face he makes . It isn’t fair.
“Please?” he pleads.
Well she can’t exactly say no to that .
She sighs before standing up and walking over to Todoroki’s bedroom. The drawer he was talking about is in the corner of the room. She opens up the bottom drawer to indeed find a pair of gray sweats and a plain white t-shirt.
She scurries over to the bathroom and throws on Todoroki’s clothes. The shirt absolutely engulfs her and it was much closer in resemblance to a mini dress at this point. Momo tightens the drawstrings of the sweatpants so at least the waist would fit her nicely. Baggy clothes were a nice contrast to her usual outfits. She might have to “borrow” a few things from Todoroki.
The clothes smell like him, and she couldn’t say she isn’t enjoying it in at least the slightest.
When Momo comes back into the living room sporting Todoroki’s clothes, she finds Todoroki nodding off to sleep still sitting down by the coffee table. The strands of hair tied in the ponytail Momo put springs up and down as his head bounces.
She whips out her phone and sneaks as close as she can without waking him. She can’t simply waste a perfect opportunity like this! The soft lighting in the room set the snapshot just right, highlighting his features perfectly. She feels her grin widen at the photo saved to her camera roll. She sets the photo as her wallpaper, and clicks it off, her reflection staring back at her on the black screen.
She looks up at Todoroki in front of him, sleeping while sitting on the floor. Probably isn't the most comfortable is it?
She scoops up the sleeping Todoroki and places him onto the couch. He shifts a bit before falling back asleep, and Momo lays a blanket overtop of him.
She collects the empty dishes on the table and tries her best to balance them with her hands full. She steps on the button turning off the lamp in the living room, leaving Todoroki asleep in the dark.
Momo places the dishes into the sink and starts to wash them. Her thoughts wander with each dish she cleans. She reflects back on her day, and wonders what tomorrow might bring. She was glad to be where she was at the moment. Having the presence of Todoroki around makes her happy, even if he is asleep in the other room and they haven't exchanged many words. It still means a lot to her. She’s glad that she is here instead of filling out papers in her office by herself at this hour. Maybe this is the universe’s way of giving her a break.
As she’s about to place the last dish onto the drying rack, she jumps when something wraps its arms around her. That something Momo suspects is a certain someone, and that certain someone buries his face into Momo’s neck, nuzzling his nose on the nape of her neck.
She feels the blood rush to her cheeks, and tingles scatter throughout her body. In a sliver of her eyesight she catches a messy nest of red and white hair, confirming her previous suspicions that this is indeed the Todoroki Shouto.
“Come to sleep,” he mumbles dozing off on her shoulder, still standing behind her with his arms snaked around her.
Momo, absolutely dumbfounded, is trying her best to comprehend what is going on and string together a cohesive sentence. “To-Todoroki-kun, aren’t you sick?” she blurts out.
“Mmm fine,” his muffled words just barely audible, “Come to sleep. I won’t be sick.. If you come to sleep.”
“That's not how it works you know?”
“It is now.”
She pauses and places her hands on his.
“You know if you aren’t sick anymore I can just head home-,” she teases.
“No,” he objects and murmurs something that Momo could barely hear.
“Hmm?”
“I like you being here,” he whispers.
She smiles, “It’s nice having you around too, Todoroki-kun.”
Todoroki grabs onto her hand. His grasp was light, as if Momo’s hands were a delicate piece of china. He leads her towards his bedroom, like a small child giving a tour of the house to her. She sits down on the tatami mats of his room as he rummages through his closet and pulls out an extra futon and places it next to his.
Todoroki turns off the light in his room, and the blue tinted moonlight shines through the window. The two exchange their goodnights as they lay down, and as soon as Momo’s head hits the pillow she falls asleep.
***
The lack of presence wakes Momo in the middle of her sleep. The futon beside her is empty. She looks out the apartment window and it’s pitch black.
She glances at her phone, the screen brightness of her phone blinding her, it reads 4AM. She leaves the warm safety of the futon to look for Todoroki
She pokes her head out the door into the hallway to find the closed bathroom door with a sliver of light coming through the gap between the floor and the door. She walks down the hallway to the bathroom and hears Todoroki throwing up through the door.
Ah, he was still sick after all.
She knocks on the door, “Todoroki-kun?”
“Yeah.”
She winces at the sound of his voice. His whimper of a reply makes her heart sink.
Momo heads over to the kitchen and reaches for a glass. She pours out water into the glass and brings it over to the closed bathroom door.
Momo knocks on the door once again, “Todoroki-kun? Can I come in? I’ve brought you some water.”
A few seconds of silence pass.
“Yeah.”
She pokes her head through the door and takes one glance at Todoroki. He is sat on the bathroom floor with one side of his head on the toilet seat, and his face is awfully pale. He stares off into the distance with an exhausted look in his eyes. A frown sets in her face at the sight of Todoroki’s current state.
Momo walks into the bathroom and places the glass next to him. She places her hand onto his forehead, as soon as the back of her hand hits his forehead she immediately retracts it. It’s even worse than before , her eyebrows twist in a knot.
He takes a sip of water.
Momo watches him with a face of concern, her facial features tight.
After setting the glass back down, he glances back up at her and scoots closer towards her.
“Todoroki-kun?”
He places his forehead on her shoulder.
Her face is burning up.
He wraps his arms around her.
He whispers, “Thanks for everything.” He falls asleep as soon as the words escape his lips.
Moments after he falls asleep on her shoulder. She scoops him up off the bathroom floor, carries him back into his bedroom, and carefully places him onto his futon.
Momo goes back to the bathroom to grab a cloth from the cabinet and runs it under the sink with cold water. She wrings out the excess water and heads back into Todoroki’s room. She brushes the stray hairs on his face to the side, and places the damp cloth on his forehead.
She refills the glass of water and places it beside his futon just in case he needs it.
She lies down on the futon beside his, and lies on her side facing Todoroki.
Momo watches the steady breathing of Todoroki, as he breathes in and out she’s lulled into sleep.
***
The repetitive electronic beeping of an alarm is what woke Momo that morning. Though she struggles to go turn it off because a certain someone had a protective arm wrapped around her.
Somehow, in the very few hours of sleep Momo gets, the space between Todoroki and her futon has closed, and his face ends up mere inches from hers. With a lot of squirming and Todoroki’s protest, she manages to escape his grasp and puts an end to the irritating beep of the alarm.
Her tired eyes beg to be shut, and Momo wasn’t sure if the couple hours of sleep she received would make much of a difference. Being a Pro-Hero though, sleep isn’t her main priority and days off are scarce. It‘s all simply a part of the job.
To Todoroki’s discontent, Momo gets up from the futon, and he huffs a disappointed groan. Momo lets out a snicker, her throat still hoarse from just waking up.
“Hey Todoroki-kun,” her voice is scratchy, “I’ll stay here and eat breakfast, and then I'll head home since I have work in a few hours.”
He sits up and nods, rubbing his eyes. Momo leaves Todoroki in his room and heads towards the kitchen. Todoroki gets up and follows soon after.
She hears Todoroki’s footsteps padding into the kitchen. “Do you have pancake mix?” Momo says as she rummages through a cupboard.
“Yeah,” he comes up behind her and reaches over her for a box one shelf above where Momo had been looking.
“Oh,” she says, turning around to a very close Todoroki, who hands her the box. She brings a hand up to her face, and her cheeks are burning. She is for sure blushing.
He shows her one of his rare smiles, which certainly didn’t help her case. Her pulse felt so loud, and she worried that even Todoroki would hear it.
“Yaoyorozu?”
She snaps out of her daze and she looks back up at him, and he looks at her with a cocked eyebrow. She lets out a nervous chuckle, “Let’s make some pancakes.”
***
They don’t make pancakes. They make anything but pancakes. They follow the recipe on the pancake box, but they somehow don’t end up with pancakes. The ‘pancakes’ are much closer in resemblance to a sad excuse of a pita.
How did this even happen? Both of them are decent cooks… or at least Momo thought.
Momo and Todoroki sit at the small dining table in the apartment, and right in the middle sits a stack of their ‘pancakes’. The two stare at the looming tower of failure in silence. Momo is barely holding back laughter.
Todoroki do not say anything. I am on the verge of tears of laughter right now.
“These are not pancakes,” he says, breaking the silence, and verbalizing what both were thinking.
Momo burst out laughing, she can no longer hold it in. Everytime she looks at the ‘pancakes’ a fit of laughter follows. Her lungs can barely keep up with her, and tears were forming in her eyes. Todoroki too, is laughing (just maybe not as hard as Momo), and the two sit there laughing, unable to gasp a full word without cracking up halfway.
Eventually (which ends up being a lot longer than Momo would like to admit), they settle down and reluctantly take their first bite into their creation .
“It’s… food. I guess,” he hesitates after swallowing his first bite.
“Not pancakes that's for sure,” she says in turn, “How did we even end up with… this.”
“We’ll just say we're pro-heros, not master chefs.”
Momo snickers as she takes another bite of their ‘pancakes’. She mindlessly taps on the home button of her phone to check the time, and Todoroki catches a glimpse of her new phone background.
“Yaoyorozu, what’s your phone background?”
Ah, she completely forgot about that.
She looks up at him sheepishly with a grin on her face. “I couldn’t help it! I mean look at you!” She shows the phone screen up to Todoroki, and she swears there’s a pink dust covering his cheeks.
He takes a bite of their pancakes in an attempt to cover the fact that he was definitely flustered. She giggles until she hears the sound of a phone camera click.
Wait what?
He tricked me! Momo thinks, her mouth agape. Though, she will admit that his strategy is quite clever…
“Now we’re even,” he points to his phone with a grinning Momo illuminating the screen.
She sighs with a smile, and Todoroki gets back to the pancakes with a satisfied look on his face.
***
Momo flicks the light of her office on, and her eyes are immediately drawn to the stack of papers she hadn’t finished filling out yesterday. She exhales as she places her jacket on the chair, rubbing her temples at the current state of her desk.
The patter of the rain and the ticking of her clock is the only noise in her office. Momo glances at the clock, it’s 9:08PM. It has been a little over twenty-four hours that the stack of paperwork has been there, and it hasn’t been whittled down by much.
She makes a cup of tea and slumps onto her chair. Time to get to work Momo! She encourages herself.
She picks up a black pen from the pencil holder on her desk, and as the ink hits the paper, Momo sneezes. She feels another sneeze tickling her nose, and she sneezes again and again, her nose running by the time her sneezing fit finishes.
Oh no. This can’t be good. I have so much paperwork to do. No worries I’ll just… power through it . She picks up the pen once again, determined to somehow get through all these papers. She could do it! Her pen glides on the paper besides the occasional sniff, forcing her to pause and grab a tissue. She sets aside the first completed page.
That wasn’t too hard. I can be done in a few hours if I keep at this pace.
She grabs the next but her movements feel slower. As she’s halfway through the page her thoughts begin to blur in a haze. She scans the page, trying to read the words yet nothing seems to register in her head, Where was I again?
Little by little her head sinks further and further down, she tries her best to fight the weight pressing down onto her until tiredness wins over her and her head is planted on her desk with her pen still in hand. The papers sit untouched on her desk and her untouched cup of tea goes cold.
***
Shouto’s phone buzzes in his pocket, and he checks to see who might be calling him this late. Jirou? She doesn’t call often, he wonders to himself before tapping on the bright green ‘Accept Call’ button.
“I have a feeling your girlfriend’s currently either sick, asleep, or both in her office right about now”
Shouto’s mind tries to process what Jirou just said.
“What?”
“Your girlfriend. Is sick, asleep, or both in her office.”
“I don’t have… a girlfriend?” he replies, completely oblivious.
A loud audible sigh comes from the speaker of Shouto’s phone.
“Momo needs her boyfriend to come get her.”
“Momo has a boyfriend?” he certainly isn’t aware of this, and a droplet of jealousy spreads through Todoroki’s body. “Why are you calling me then?”
There’s a short pause.
“Hello?” Is she still there?
“You dense dumbass…” she mumbles, “No wonder you two are perfect for each other.”
“What?”
“You! You're the boyfriend!”
The words slowly start to register in his head.
Ah, that’s what she meant.
“She’s not my gi-”
“Sure she isn’t. Now go get your ass over to her office.”
“Jir-”
Jirou abruptly ends the call, leaving a very confused Shouto staring back at his phone screen. It doesn’t exactly help that his lockscreen is a photo of a smiley Yaoyorozu. The dimples on her cheeks that formed from the wide grin plastered on her face is brighter than his phone screen.
Her office isn’t that far, though the pouring rain added an extra challenge. He likely won’t get there dry to say the least. That doesn’t really matter to Shouto.